Moxie Theatre, San Diego

Lynne FriedmannTheaterMay 27, 2016San Diego,
In the 1980s, in an all-girls Catholic school in rural Rwanda, young Alphonsine (Cashae Monya, utterly believable as one in a state of grace) claims visions of the Virgin Mary. The story opens with ...

Josh BaxtTheaterApril 20, 2016San Diego,
From Star Trek to Sliders, parallel universes have been a science fiction go-to for years and have the advantage of being based on actual science. When physicists study the quantum realm – think atoms and smaller – they sometimes ...

A World Premiere Musical

Josh BaxtTheaterApril 4, 2016San Diego,
One thing the Old Globe does exceptionally well is make Shakespeare relevant. Through sets, costumes and playfully exploiting the Bard’s lack of stage directions, the theater brings these plays alive for 21st Century audiences. They feel significant.
Unfortunately, “Rain” ...

The Old Globe, San Diego

Josh BaxtTheaterFebruary 11, 2016San Diego,
“The Metromaniacs” could have gone either way. Consider the ingredients: a convoluted story, characters with multiple identities, dialogue written in verse – rhyming couplets for the most part and not a slant rhyme in ...

Playwright John Patrick Shanley returns to his romantic-comedy writing chops.

Lynne FriedmannTheaterFebruary 5, 2016San Diego,
Two Irish farming families, whose generations have lived predictably side by side for more than a century, are in for a rude awakening in the San Diego REP’s satisfying production of “Outside Mullingar.”
...

Nature versus nurture reverberates with the force of a thunderclap.

Lynne FriedmannTheaterJanuary 29, 2016San Diego,
The story begins in the year 2039 in the normally bone-dry Australian Outback town of Alice Springs; now a land where it is raining to beat the band. We soon learn, through Gabriel York (Adrian Alita), ...

University of San Diego MFA production at the Old Globe Theater

Josh BaxtTheaterNovember 26, 2015San Diego,
“As You Like It” is certainly one of Shakespeare’s more joyous efforts. Most of the action takes place in the Forest of Arden, a quaint, magical place where love can (and does) flourish; the villains don’t persist for ...

The Old Globe, San Diego

Lynne FriedmannTheaterOctober 8, 2015San Diego,
I submit that the two most powerful words in the English language are: what if.
Eight years ago, Tony award-winning director-choreographer Christopher Gattelli (“Newsies”) had a “what if” moment that he shared with producer Jennifer ...